College Graduates – High School Graduates` Monthly Wage Difference over 1,000,000 Won

The gap for wages for employees with college degrees and employees with high school degrees has widened to 1,000,000 won for the first time.

According to the National Statistical Office`s announcement on December 16, the head of a family with a college degree working in the city earned a monthly average of 3,494,000 won in the 3-4 quarter (July – September), an increase of 21.4 percent from the 2,877,000 won.

This is twice the average increase rate (11.9 percent) for a worker in the city.

On the other hand, employees with only a high school degree earned a monthly average of 2,481,000 won in the same period, a 5.9 percent increase from the 2,481,000 won. The difference in monthly wages between a college graduate and high school graduate employee is 1,013,000 won, surpassing 1,000,000 won amount.

The wage difference between college and high school graduates was 384,000 won in 1990 to 517,000 in 1996. After the financial crisis in 1998, it jumped to 698,000 won. It was 647,000 won in 1999, decreasing to 614,000 won in 2000, and has increased again. In the 1-4 quarter this year, the difference was 603,000 won. In the 2-4 quarter, it was 705,000 won.

The amount in wages for college graduate heads of households divided by high school graduate heads yielded an increase of 1.41 times in the 3-4 quarter. This is 0.14 percent higher than last year`s 1.27 times rate.

The NSO noted, "The trend of valuing schooling over actual individual ability has not disappeared. Furthermore, as the economic recession has entered a long-term stage, the high school graduates bear the greater brunt of the impact than the college graduates."

Yet, the wage for heads of households with graduate school degrees stopped at a 3.5 percent increase in the 3-4 quarter to 4,341,000 won, while vocational college graduates recorded a 9.1 percent increase with 2,646,000 won. The difference between graduate degree holding workers and high school degree holding workers decreased from 2,052,000 won to 1,859,000 won, while the difference between graduate and college degree holding workers also decreased by 840,000 won with 1,318,000 won.

Chan-Sun Hong hcs@donga.com